Clever Bookshelf Expands to Fit the Space You Have

What's better than one bookshelf? One bookshelf that's actually more than one bookshelf.

The Japanese company Nendo has designed a bookshelf called nest that's actually two bookshelves. How does that work? The actual solution is rather simple, really: The second shelf is only half as thick as the first. It is hidden within the first and slides out when pulled, effectively leaving a hollow middle to the first shelf. Or you could just pull it out a bit, creating a grid of several smaller shelves.

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The shelf was specifically designed by Sayaka Ito for the London Design Festival 2015, with carbon fiber vertical sections and "aramid fibre-made honeycomb material sandwiched between carbon fiber" for the horizontal ones. The whole thing's finished off with a larch veneer. The outer shelving measures 9.6-millimeters thick while the hidden shelf within the outer measures 4.8-millimeters thick, so the hidden bit's half as thick.

It's too bad that the bookshelf doesn't appear to be for sale, as it would make for the perfect complement to those awkward empty spaces in any home. Too big for just the one shelf, but not big enough for two? The nest shelf has you covered!